I liked Bullet to the Head and there was a slight sense of self-mocking about it, which is weird because one of the problems I generally have with Stallone as an action hero is his overall lack of any sense of humour. It's not that there aren't jokes in his films, he's just so terrible at delivering them, especially compared with Arnie.

Will definitely check out Olympus has Fallen. The trailer looks fantastic! I wanna see White House Down, too.

well, of course kristen stewart can't act for shit. her fame is all about the freckles. i liked the movie-- not that it was good, but nice piece of 70s hagiography. and their manager, what a dick! plus there were some interviews after.

i watched the original DJANGO.

great stuff! loved the terrible pinkish color of the stage blood-- looked like it was mixed with antifreeze! and of course dubbed. awesome. no, really good, i'm not making fun, and it's not that i see it for camp value-- it was campy maybe 40 years ago but today it's pure genius. kinda like seijun suzuki.

Half of me wants to see that but is it really depressing? I can't seem to handle really downer/bleak movies anymore.

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Originally Posted by !@#$%!

i watched the original DJANGO.

great stuff! loved the terrible pinkish color of the stage blood-- looked like it was mixed with antifreeze! and of course dubbed. awesome. no, really good, i'm not making fun, and it's not that i see it for camp value-- it was campy maybe 40 years ago but today it's pure genius. kinda like seijun suzuki.

Haha. Classic. But am I the only one who thinks that despite its relentless action it's a reeeaaally slow movie, overall? It's years since I saw it though. I should probably watch it again.

holy mother of fuck. try watching "a separation" one of these days. UNFUCKINGBEARABLE! yes, yes, it won many awards, but when i watch i just wanna kill everyone in it and the guy who made it. as close to living in iran as i can imagine-- and that-- i just don't wanna fucking do that, i don't came how many golden palms/bears/whatever trophies that shit has won. my life is not long enough to spend the 2, 3 hours that it takes to watch it (i watched half and it felt like FOREVER).

speaking of long slow movies, about to watch (i think) antonioni's "red desert".

The Red Desert is definitely slow but it's not bleak in the way that I assumed Bullhead to be. I don't mind the more existential(?) bleakness that I associate with the likes of Antonioni but I really can't handle extreme violence anymore, at least in any kind of realistic way. I'll happily watch a John Woo movie or a series like Miami Vice or anything highly stylised like that, but when it starts to feel overtly 'real', I can't seem to handle it anymore. I watched Walter Hill's Last Man Standing the other night, which has to be about as violent as a Hollywood movie could be, but it's so stylised that it didn't bother me at all. I loved it in fact.

For years those more bleak/visceral movies were the very kind that I gravitated towards but they now just leave me a bit too depressed. Same with literature. I tried to reread Last Exit to Brooklyn recently (for years one of my very fave novels) but I couldn't seem to get past more than a few pages of it. I could handle Blood Meridian, though, just because it was so extreme and so alien from anything I could possibly experience or relate to that it didn't really bother me.

The Red Desert is definitely slow but it's not bleak in the way that I assumed Bullhead to be. I don't mind the more existential(?) bleakness that I associate with the likes of Antonioni but I really can't handle extreme violence anymore, at least in any kind of realistic way. I'll happily watch a John Woo movie or a series like Miami Vice or anything highly stylised like that, but when it starts to feel overtly 'real', I can't seem to handle it anymore. I watched Walter Hill's Last Man Standing the other night, which has to be about as violent as a Hollywood movie could be, but it's so stylised that it didn't bother me at all. I loved it in fact.

For years those more bleak/visceral movies were the very kind that I gravitated towards but they now just leave me a bit too depressed. Same with literature. I tried to reread Last Exit to Brooklyn recently (for years one of my very fave novels) but I couldn't seem to get past more than a few pages of it. I could handle Blood Meridian, though, just because it was so extreme and so alien from anything I could possibly experience or relate to that it didn't really bother me.

As my fav book of all time this bothers me. Yeah it's bleak...but...but it's so good! If you want bleak (or not) then try The Room by him.

Bullhead is on my list of stuff to see, sometimes I want bleakness and misery.

A Separation was the most subtly handled and intelligent depiction of divorce I've seen in any film or TV thing ever, totally reminded me of how much it sucks being a child caught up in that type of shit, but in a good way. I'd highly recommend About Elly the other film from that director that has made it as far as being translated.

As my fav book of all time this bothers me. Yeah it's bleak...but...but it's so good! If you want bleak (or not) then try The Room by him.

I've read The Room. I've read all his novels. You'd have to agree, though, that they're not something you can read in any mood and I suppose I just haven't been in the right mood to read them for a little while now. I'd never criticise any of them, though.

Oh I also watched Mike Leigh's lighthearted comedy about the every day lives of a working class family in London, titled "Life is Sweet". David Thewlis is great in a minor role. His wistfully haunting performance in Leigh's "Naked" is one of my favorites of all time.

I don't know how you could interpret a film like Naked as being wistful.